BPO sector seen growing despite strong peso

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) on Wednesday said it was mindful of the stronger peso as the country aspires to remain as the biggest contact center hub in the world.

The Philippines is still the preferred destination for contact centers, according to CCAP president Benedict Hernandez, despite the peso appreciation that can weaken the competitiveness of business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.

“It is something that we carefully watch,” Hernandez said during the launch of the International Contact Center Conference and Expo 2012.

Despite the adjustments in cost due to the fluctuating exchange rate, there was still a significant preference for the Philippines because of the higher value provided by the country, he added.

“Beyond cost, there are many aspects of the Philippine value proposition—the talent, the culture, the language, the proficiency, the level of service—all of those are creating this bigger value proposition,” Hernandez said.

Strategies on how the contact center industry can adapt to other trends particularly in geopolitics, technology, workplace, education and outsourcing will be tackled during the International Contact Center Conference and Expo (ICCCE) on September 18-19 at the SMX Convention Center.

ICCCE is the flagship event of CCAP, which represents 81 global and local contact centers operating in the Philippines.

Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo said that the ICCCE could promote the Next Wave Cities Program, which seeks to drive growth in information technology (IT) in other areas apart from Manila, Cebu and Clark.

The IT-BPO industry is targeting $12 billion in revenue this year, higher than the $11 billion generated in 2011.

The contact center component accounted for 65 percent of total business in 2011 with 416,000 employees providing $7.4 billion in services to the world.